More stigmatizing language found in clinical notes for older, female, or patients of color with opioid use disorder

Bias and stigma can be experienced and communicated in many ways, including the language used by clinicians in encounter notes in electronic health records (EHRs). Stigmatizing language (SL) can discourage people from seeking help for medical disorders, whereas person-first language, avoiding stigmatizing terms like “addict” and “abuse,” and individualizing people helps to defeat stigma. A team of researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine set out to investigate the use of SL in clinical notes of patients with a diagnosis of opioid use disorder (OUD).